Futures adrift, metals and oils lower

Nokia and Intel buck the trend

EmilyChurch

LONDON (CBS.MW) - U.S. stock futures were edging lower on Wednesday in London, in line with the drift in overseas markets although there was some movement in a couple of bellwether techs.

Outside of stocks, the euro was coming off record highs vs. the dollar to the $1.2670 mark and the dollar was steady for the second-day running against the yen. See more on dollar bears and ECB

In the futures markets, all the base and precious metals were down. London metals-related stocks were showing small declines. Oil stocks were facing steeper drops of around 2 percent.

New York shares of oil majors Royal Dutch
RD
and BP
BP, -0.50%
were down around 3 percent on the ECNs at 8 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Industrials futures were off 23 points at 10,491. The Nasdaq 100s tracker
QQQ, +0.78%
was down 0.3 percent.

Nokia
NOK, +0.87%
the leading mobile handset maker, rose 3 percent in Europe after two broker upgrades underpinned hopes for a strong holiday sales season. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein lifted its rating to buy, saying "tidal wave of handset demand" should bolster earnings momentum. Nokia in New York was up 2.9 percent at $18.

Intel Corp.
INTC, +0.17%
was last up around 1 percent at $33.23. The chipmaker announced a $200 million investment fund to back its consumer electronics interest. Bernstein upgraded the stock to "outperform" and raised its price target to $42 from $34, and said investors have not fully taken on board potential improvements in profit margin in the first half.

Focus stocks

Circuit City
CC, -2.74%
said same-store sales fell 2 percent in December, as growth in new technoligies such as digital, LCD and plasma televisions offset weakness in the more traditional areas of home audio and video game hardware and software. Shares were down 8.4 percent at $9.25.

Duke Energy
DUK, +1.46%
said ahead of the open that it expects to book a $3.3 billion charge in the fourth quarter as it scales back its merchant energy business and reduces exposure to international markets.

JDA Software
JDAS
dropped as much as 22 percent overnight to $14 after warning it would miss fourth-quarter earnings and sales targets because of several delayed sales contracts.

European airline stocks were rising. British Airways
BAB, -0.41%
added to Monday's run-up with a 7.9 percent rise, as several brokers said the December data the company unveiled overnight demonstrates a recovery. KLM's
KLM, +0.00%
positive December load statistics unveiled Wednesday added to positive sentiment. Lufthansa and Air France were higher too.

Ad group WPP
WPPGY, +3.07%
edged 0.5 percent lower in London mid-morning trade after the Financial Times said that the finance director and a former executive of its Ogilvy & Mather unit was indicted on charges they schemed to overcharge the U.S. government for an anti-drug media campaign.

Irish pharmaceuticals group Elan Corp.
ELN, +0.00%
rose 5 percent in London. It expects to file an amendment to its New Drug Application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the second quarter of 2004 for Prialt.

Boeing
BA, +0.71%
said late Tueday that it delivered 281 jets in 2003, with 71 of them delivered in the fourth quarter. Boeing shares fell 14 cents to end the regular session at $41.93 ahead of the news.

Broker calls

A flurry of broker commentary surfaced. UBS raised its rating on Nortel Networks
NT
to buy from neutral overnight. "We think NT has leading technology for 3G/UMTS wireless infrastructure. As a result, we expect NT's share in UMTS to climb close to 15 percent vs. approximately 8 percent share in GSM." UBS raised its price target on the stock to $6 from $5. Shares rose 2.5 percent to $4.88 on Instinet.

Merrill lifted Abgenix
ABGX
to a buy, citing expectations for near and mid-term "positive news flow."

Credit Suisse First Boston cut Genzyme
GENZ
to neutral from outperform. The broker said it remained "overweight" the biotechnology sector, but added "however, we do not expect the broad-based outsized gains of 2003 to continue in 2004. We advise a more selective posture, with more of a mid-cap and small-cap focusareas where we believe exciting values exist. Our GENZ downgrade is consistent with this shift in focus."

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